Police focus on education to battle heroin

STEVENS POINT – Law enforcement leaders in Portage County plan to focus on education in the ongoing battle with heroin use, Stevens Point Police Chief Kevin Ruder said Thursday.

Ruder hosted a heroin summit for police Thursday, the third such meeting held in the region. Leaders in the law enforcement community have used the summits to seek effective ways to address the rise of heroin use in central Wisconsin. Portage County saw its first heroin overdose death in decades in 2011, and had two more in 2012.

Police and sheriffs met Thursday with medical professionals from Riverview Hospital and Ministry Saint Michael’s Hospital to study the effect of prescription medication on heroin use. Many people become addicted to heroin by using the drug as an alternative to pain medication, Ruder said.

Educating people who become addicted to pain medication is one way to reduce the number of people turning to illegal drugs such as heroin, Ruder said.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this,” Ruder said.

The summits have been closed to the public and media and are meant as a way for law enforcement officials to have open discussions about how to battle the heroin problem. Ruder answered questions after the event.

The next heroin summit is scheduled for early November and will be an open forum in which the public can attend and offer comment, Ruder said.